I have always thought I have been somewhat educated about the healthcare system. I know there are a lot of problems in our current system and there are places where things can slip through the cracks or be a failure for patients. For example, for me to get breast MRIs covered, I had to work with a geneticist to declare myself high-risk for breast cancer. Mammograms are covered as a cancer screening, but if you are told you should get MRIs to check for cancer they might not be. I have a similar issue with TB testing. The skin test (where you get the little bubble under your skin) is free. I cannot do the skin test because when I was 18 I was exposed to TB (I never had it and took medication for a year to make sure I wouldn’t get it). I need chest x-rays. But my insurance wants to charge $500 a view for those. I’m still trying to get those covered so I don’t have to pay $1000 for something most people can do for free.
But even with all the problems with healthcare, I know I’m lucky. I have good doctors who I know are making sure I’m ok and healthy. I do have coverage for most things that I need and usually, it’s a pretty easy system to get care in. I don’t have cheap insurance because I pay for it as an individual, but it could be much worse and it was much worse before the ACA went into effect.
I’ve never been eligible for healthcare through my work. I have had day jobs where I was working full-time, but you had to be there for a very long time before you could sign up. I wasn’t at that job long enough (I think it was 1 year before insurance and I was there 10 months), but I knew that I wouldn’t take that insurance because I was in the middle of my hip issues and the work insurance was the wrong insurance company. I’ve had other day jobs that gave everyone who worked at least 35 hours a week insurance after 30 days. But they kept us all at 34 hours or under.
And I’ve never been eligible for healthcare from my union. The healthcare plan is a separate organization from my union, but that plan is only for members of the union. You have to earn a certain amount of money or work enough days to be eligible. It’s something that is a goal for me (although I don’t know if I’d sign up for the healthcare if I could get it because it is not the insurance all my doctors are with). But just because I’m not eligible doesn’t mean I don’t want to understand the plan and the options. I also feel like I need to be informed so I can do my work with my slate’s social media as successfully as possible.
Recently, the healthcare plan for the union announced some changes. They usually do changes each year, just like any other healthcare plan. But of course, this year things are different since work has been almost completed stopped for almost half a year (and we have no idea when it will be coming back). People are worried about a lot of things regarding healthcare, even if you don’t have to worry about being eligible.
And I know that some people are not happy about the changes to the union plan. I don’t think they are great, but I also know that they could be much worse. For example, the old healthcare plan had 2 levels with different income eligibility requirements. The new plan only has 1 level and the income requirements are between what the old 2 were. However, there is a new COBRA relief plan for anyone who has income at the old lower eligibity level. If you are at that old level but don’t make the new one, the plan pays for 80% of your COBRA premiums. That makes COBRA close to the cost of the regular premiums. That’s much better than having to pay full COBRA.
Of course, some people did not make enough to be eligible for that and their options now are to go on regular COBRA or find individual insurance. Fortunately, since the ACA made pre-existing conditions not an issue for insurance anymore, individual insurance is typically much more affordable than it used to be. I’m sure it’s horrible to know that you are not going to get the health insurance that you were planning on and it might not have been your fault. You might have been on track to make enough and then things shut down. But I’ve been talking to friends who are in that situation to make sure they know the options and to connect them to people who know how to help people who are buying individual insurance go through all the options to find the best plan.
The union has been doing some webinars about the healthcare plan and I was able to attend one last week. They explained the realities of the costs of healthcare. And yes, a huge problem happening with all insurance plans is the insane cost of care. A medication could be listed at $10,000 and the insurance plan has to cover that. But it doesn’t have to cost that much because it’s only $250 in other countries. But the insurance plans have to cover the cost for here. So that makes things expensive for anyone. Also, the way the union healthcare plan is funded is mainly from contributions from our employers (the producers for the projects we work on). With no work, there are no contributions. We did just have a big victory with our last contract by getting a huge increase in the contributions. But we need to work to see that in effect.
They also explained all the options that everyone has, whether or not they met the income requirements. Even though none of them apply to me, I’m glad I understand what the requirements are for different things and how people who might not hit that level can still have options. I want to be able to answer questions that people have and I understand things a lot more than I did before.
Healthcare in this country is complicated no matter how you get it. You might have eligibility requirements that are difficult or confusing to get. You might have to figure out individual insurance and what things you need or don’t need. Even when you have insurance, you might have to fight to get things covered because they aren’t exactly how everyone else gets treated or checked. I think universal healthcare has never been more important than now. Not just because of the issues some insurance companies are running into, but because everyone needs healthcare no matter what. It shouldn’t be tied to your job. So many people lost their job this year and also lost their insurance. You should never had to worry about how you will get healthcare if things change in your life.
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